It’s a busy busy day. Your meetings overlap and you don’t really have time to digest all of the stuff that’s happening before, during and after because you are rushing from one meeting to the next. Sounds familiar?

Most people today probably recognize this scenario. There is a constant demand for us to concentrate and be attentive. Our brains have to work harder than they were build to and don’t get the breaks they need.

In today’s post, we look at why and how you should take a breather to give your brain a break during a workday.

The Downside of Having a Stone Age Brain

Thing is, we still have a Stone Age brain that isn’t really capable of handling the life, we are living, which is part of the reason why most of us have a hard time getting through life without running into stress or anxiety.*

What our brains need is for us to learn to take breaks and make rules for our availability. A good way to take a break is to do breathwork. You can do this with Resilio or simply just by yourself.

Why You Should Take a Breather

When doing breath training you practice your ability to shift your focus to neutral places of the body and in a quick and easy way, the traffic in your head is reduced. The attention on your breath, the nose breathing and the constant awareness of how your body feels take up so much of your cognitive capacity that you simply can’t think of anything else. Your brain gets a well-deserved break. A breather. Renewed oxygen.

It may feel selfish to prioritize ten minutes a day for breathing exercises, meditation or just for staring out of the window because there is always stuff to do, right? But try thinking about it this way: when allocating 10 minutes of your day to yourself, you actually return to your workplace with a different focus afterwards. It is just like the thing airlines tell you when you board an airplane: before helping others, you have to put on your own oxygen mask.

Ten Minutes a Day Keeps the Bad Stuff Away

So, make sure to take that time off to yourself. Just 10 minutes. Every day.

And then next time you find yourself running from one meeting to another without having the time to digest it all, take responsibility for yourself and the situation at hand; e.g. by asking your colleagues to spend the first two minutes of your meeting focusing on your breath, relaxing or simply just looking out the window. By doing this you all get a chance to leave the old work stuff behind, before making room for the new.